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Expression of chemokine receptor CXCR3 by lymphocytes and plasmacytoid dendritic cells in human psoriatic lesions

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Abstract

In psoriasis, leukocytes that infiltrate skin lesions have been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. Previous investigations reporting the presence of CXCR3+ T lymphocytes in psoriatic lesional skin have suggested a role of this receptor in the recruitment of T cells into the lesion. The purpose of this study was to quantify the mRNA levels of CXCR3 and to perform a systematic analysis of the cell populations that express CXCR3 in human lesional and non-lesional psoriatic biopsies. We showed by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction that the mRNA levels of CXCR3 and its ligands, CXCL9-11, were significantly elevated in psoriatic lesions, as compared to non-lesional samples. Serial cryostat sections of psoriasis skin biopsies were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The number of CXCR3+ cells was low in non-lesional tissues. Quantitative image analysis demonstrated significant increases in the number of both epidermal and dermal CXCR3+ cells in lesional compared with non-lesional biopsies. The majority of CXCR3+ cells were located in the dermis of the lesional skin and 74% were demonstrated to be CD3+ T lymphocytes. A small number of CXCR3+ cells were CD68+ myeloid cells. In addition, we found that nearly all BDCA-2+ plasmacytoid dendritic cells in the psoriatic biopsies were CXCR3+. These findings support and extend prior reports suggesting the potential role for CXCR3 in the pathophysiology of plaque psoriasis, by mediating the recruitment of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and T cells into the developing lesions.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Dr. Jason Simon for sharing with us the microarray data of the skin biopsies, which led to the subsequent RT-PCR analysis described in this report. We are grateful to Dr. Daniel Lundell for his critical reading and comments to this manuscript.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Shu-Cheng Chen.

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Chen, SC., de Groot, M., Kinsley, D. et al. Expression of chemokine receptor CXCR3 by lymphocytes and plasmacytoid dendritic cells in human psoriatic lesions. Arch Dermatol Res 302, 113–123 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-009-0966-2

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